"Researching Blogs by Blogging": A Response

The following is my response to Briana's questions for bloggers.

I try to talk frankly about the Faith, as I would to another Bahá'í – an idea I got from Darlene. No sense in hiding or censoring yourself of "Bahá'í jargon." If anyone has a question they are free to ask or do research on their own. That's why I put links to the sources of Bahá'í quotes (reference.bahai.org or bahai-library.com, usually).

I pay careful attention to using correct formatting and spelling. This can be problematic with letters that have dots below them. The Mac can create them, but I am unsure which characters are visible with most browsers. (Not everyone sets their browser to Unicode as a default.) I need to discuss this with Wade.

Q: Do you ever blog about spirituality, religion, or the Baha'i Faith?

A: I post daily right now, so I include what is on my mind that day. Because spirituality, religion and the Bahá'í Faith are increasingly being integrated in all part of my life, my thoughts and actions have a lot to do with them. Discussing them in my blog just happens naturally. Initially, though, I made a point to explain concepts, Individuals or the history and include hyperlinks to authoritative websites that go into more detail.

Q: Have you had people ask you questions about these topics as a result of your blogging?

A: Occasionally people who randomly land on it by clicking "NEXT BLOG>>" will leave comments, and I try to follow up by tracking them down through their profile or using my counters that monitor who visits my blog. Most of my readers though are Bahá'ís so there isn't much for them to ask about. My counters tell me that high school and college friends read my blog, but none have asked questions about those topics so far.

Q: Do you blog specifically to teach the faith or do you just blog about your life and thoughts and feelings?

A: Yes. I blog to let my friends and family know what I'm up to and how I am doing, and to sort through my own thoughts and note my YOS experiences to look back on. Also, I often include comments that I hope will provoke a "passer-by" to investigate the Faith.

Q: Have you ever taught someone the Baha'i Faith, in depthly, as a result of your blogging?

A: A guy from Melbourne, Australia (college freshman, I think) and I started talking. He has shared a lot about his search for religious truth. He's investigating the Faith and met up with Bahá'í­s where he lives. [D'oh! He found me on by.com, not my blog. I see my internet presense as a fluid thing that is spread over many sites.]

Q: How do you make it easy for people to contact you about the Baha'i Faith or find out information on their own?

A: My Blogger profile has my email and AIM screenname. My blog has my mailing address (:-P) in the description at the top and a "Contact Me" section. I might expand it, but now it has a link to Skype me and to email me.

Q: Do you try to make your blog more visible? How?

A: Yes. I include my site, blog, email, AIM, Skype, MSN, and Yahoo! contact information in my email signature. Some of that is in my by.com signature. (I would include all if there wasn't the 200 character limit.) There are various sites with schemes to increase hits to your blogs, but I don't study those. Posting frequently generates enough random traffic for my interest. (Every time you post, Blogger gives you at least one hit from a person who clicked "NEXT BLOG>>.") There are websites that you can list your blog on: teachnorati, blogwise. The latter lets its site's users search for blogs by country. Since I'm one of very few from Saint Kitts and Nevis, I get a decent number of hits from that.